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A £1.5 million donation from one of the City's best known hedge fund managers has swollen Conservative party coffers.

Sir Michael Hintze

Sir Michael Hintze, founder and chief executive of CQS, was the second biggest donor to a political party in the first quarter of this year, according to figures released by the Electoral Commission today.

The largest donation for the quarter was £1,839,838 from Unite, the trade union, to the Labour Party.

Long-term Conservative backers James Lupton and Michael Farmer each gave the Tories £257,500 in the first quarter, according to the commission figures.

Lupton, one of the most senior figures in Europe at Greenhill, a US investment bank, gave £1,027,800 to the Conservative Party in 2013, the Electoral Commission website shows.

In the same period Farmer, founder of commodities-focused hedge fund RK Capital Management, gave £1,047,970.

The party was given more than £195,000 by Stuart Wheeler, founder of the spread betting firm IG Group, who is the UKIP treasurer and has been a consistent donor to the party. Wheeler confirmed the amounts in an email.